The present invention relates to a connector plug with a locking mechanism which can be locked to the mating socket when inserted thereinto.
For example, in U.S. Pat. No. Re. 32,864 there are disclosed some connector plugs with locks which are of the type that can be locked to the mating socket when inserted thereinto, no matter what part of the plug is gripped when inserting it, and can be unlocked and pulled out therefrom only when a tubular member of the plug is pulled. In one of the connector plugs disclosed in this patent an insulating body carrying pin contacts is disposed between a pair of semi-cylindrical metal covers. Such a connector plug is defective in that the two semi-cylindrical metal covers readily come out of position or fall off during assembling and are easily deformed after assembling. In addition, these metal covers have openings in which elastic locking pieces are disposed and openings through which portions of an actuating member for sliding elastic support pieces project, and consequently, they are not very effective for electromagnetic shielding.
The inventor of this application has proposed in his prior U.S. patent application Ser. No. 330,534 (filed Mar. 30, 1989) a connector plug with a locking mechanism which has an excellent electromagnetic shielding property. In the connector plug of the prior application, a metal shell is put on the rear end portion of a cylindrical metal cover having disposed therein an insulating body holding pin contacts and a small-diametered rear end portion of the metal shell is clamped around a shielding braid of a cable, so that it is necessary to connect lead wires of the cable to the pin contacts held by the insulating body and then dispose the insulating body at a predetermined position in the cylindrical metal cover, followed by putting the metal shell on the rear end portion of the metal cover from behind. In the assembling step there is a risk that the shielding braid folded back on the cable will be shifted forwardly out of position with the inner wall of the small-diametered rear end portion of the metal shell. To avoid this, the metal shell must be carefully mounted on the metal cover, and consequently, assembling of this connector plug is very cumbersome.